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Eddie Chikamhi Sports Reporter
ZIFA presidential candidate Nigel Munyati has a strong conviction that nothing beats experience in life and trusts that his expertise and long-term involvement in football will provide the key to the woes facing Zimbabwe’s football.
Munyati is running for the position of Zifa president at the board elections to be conducted today.
A former board member for marketing in the outgoing Zifa board, Munyati believes he has a better understanding of the problems bedevilling Zimbabwe’s football and is well-equipped to tackle them once chosen at the helm of the association.
In his own words, the outgoing Zifa board which he was part of, “has been a failure” in many aspects due to poor leadership from the top.
Munyati hopes to use his experience and expertise to address 10 key areas to take the game going forward.
Among the priorities, Munyati wants to see the board improve its effectiveness, professionalism, clearing the huge debts which he placed in the region of US$5 million, establishing strategic partnerships with the corporate world, reviving the Zifa Cup, reaching out to the Zimbabweans in the diaspora, running a viable junior football development programme, supporting women’s football and giving the supporters real value.
He also hopes to work closely with the Premier Soccer League to lobby for wider and increased league sponsorship, reduction or complete removal of levies, elimination of international transfer levy, Zifa participation in broadcast rights, terrestrial broadcast of PSL matches and insurance schemes.
“I promise to bring to Zimbabwe Football a passionate combination of skill, experience, dedication and professionalism,” says Munyati.
“Sport is a fundamental ingredient to a nation’s health, as it can help instil a sense of national pride and galvanise it in times of difficulty. Zimbabwe needs football. I promise to play my part in redeeming the national soul through football.
“Our board was fraught with a cancer characterised by indecisiveness, acrimonious infighting, and blindness, which cost the association dearly.
“Some of the values I will institute include: strategic thinking and action, decisiveness, consistency, honesty and fairness.”
Munyati believes football needs to be resuscitated and, since he has a better appreciation of the mistakes made by the previous board, has promised to avoid the pitfalls that led to the current situation where football is battling for survival.
In his efforts to professionalise the game, Munyati seeks to embark on a strategic planning exercise as soon as the new board settles, placing all Zifa employees on annual contracts to ensure that numbers are commensurate with funding and that retention is based on performance in his efforts to bring sanity the secretariat.
Munyati also aims to make debt elimination his priority and his key strategy “will be to break down the debt into its constituent parts and tackle each accordingly because each needs a unique solution (i.e Kentaro, Coach, vendors, Justice Ebrahim Committee, etc).”
He also has plans to engage a technical partner or kit supplier for the national teams, engage in stadium marketing and to eliminate the culture of patronage, which he blames for the current mess.
“Paid patronage is a cancer that is killing our beautiful game! This disease has undoubtedly compromised corporate governance and caused football administrators around the country to lose sight of their obligations.
“In my conversations with Government officials, corporate leaders or ordinary football enthusiasts around the country, the one comment they all make is ‘how will you compete against all the money that some candidates have splashed around the country?’
“My answer to them is: ‘I am confident that those who are visionary and truly love Zimbabwe football will choose ethics over money.’
“For how can you prosecute an 18-year-old young man for accepting US$500 to influence the outcome of a match when you are receiving money to influence the outcome of an election? If we cannot see that the two are one-and-the same, then football is doomed,” said Munyati.
A former footballer, “a full-time football administrator with a lifetime of passionate experience and expertise” in sports administration and also in the corporate world, Munyati trusts that his involvement gives him an urge over his rivals for the post of Zifa president.
Munyati played football for Black Aces in 1981 /82 and then Rio Dairibord between 1985 and 1986.
He became a co-chairman of Dairibord Football Club in 1988, was a founding trustee of the Fish Eagle Trust in 1996 and in 2000 he initiated one of his most recognised success stories when he and Marc Duvillard established the Aces Youth Soccer Academy.
The academy has churned out some of the country’s top talents like Knowledge Musona, Darryl Nyandoro, Khama Billiat and Lincolin Zvasiya.
As such, he has soft spot for grassroots development and aims to give the new Zifa a meaningful junior development programme.
“Selection of talent for the Under-15, 17, 20 and Under-23 has been haphazard and participation in regional competitions disastrous.
“My executive will prioritise junior football by introducing a department in the secretariat run by a manager and a team of regional/provincial co-ordinators and also make effective use of the FAP by ensuring that funds go direct to this department to support activities at the Area Zone, Province, and Region levels,” says Munyati.
NIGEL ANDREW
MASIMBA MUNYATI
Age: 54
Born: Harare Hospital
Grew up in Highfield, Harare
Primary School: Kuwangira, Mbizi, and Chipembere Primary Schools (1965 – 1971)
Secondary School: Mazowe Secondary School (1972-1975)
University: University of Missouri (1977-1979), Pennsylvania State University (1979 -1981) – BSc Food Science, Leeds University, Leeds, UK (1988) – MBA
Soccer Career
Age 10-16: Played for Old Highfield Youth Centre (Machembere) and Highfield Police Camp. Won the Salisbury Junior Football League, Under 14 shield.
Age 18-21: (Pennsylvania State University) 3rd place in National Collegiate Athletic Association 1980 National Championships
Age 22-23: Player Black Aces FC
Age 24: Chairman Dairibord FC
Age 25: Co-Chairman Rio-Dairibord FC
Age 40: Chairman Black Aces Football Club in 1999. Won the BP Cup in 1999
Professional Career Highlights
— Held first Management Position: Regional Manager Chipinge at age of 23
— Director of Marketing – Africa for ITT Sheraton Hotels (responsibility for 9 hotels in 10 countries.
— Introduced live Davis Cup Tennis broadcast in Zimbabwe on behalf of Tennis Zimbabwe on ZBC (six matches 1997-2000 (Ukraine, Austria, Italy, Australia, Chile, and USA);
— Chairman, Media and Publicity Committee – Southern Africa International Dialogue 1999-2000
— Sales and Marketing Trainer (over 200 hotel management personnel in Africa and Pakistan)
— Founder Zimbabwe International Film Festival (1997)
Sport Administration Highlights
— Founding Trustee of the Fish Eagle Trust (1996) to raise funds for the National teams, which it did successfully
— Organising Committee Member of the Annual National Sports Awards (ANSA)
— Established Aces Youth Soccer Academy (2000)
(i) Spent over $2 million dollars to date
(ii) Single largest contributor to Zimbabwe’s men’s and women’s junior and senior national teams since 2006
Corporate & Civic Leadership
— Board Member: Conservation Corporation Zimbabwe (1994-2000)
— Chairman: National Economic Consultative Forum: Media & Publicity Task Force (1999)
— Board Member: British Council Management Centre (1994-96)
— Zimbabwe Football Association (2010-2014)
— Borrowdale School Parents Association (1990-1991)
Student Leadership
— Leeds University: MBA Students Representative (1987-1988)
— Pennsylvania State University: Students Union Representative (1980-1981)
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